India creates a record, allows Jharia coalmine fires to burn for a century, German experts cry foul after giving presentation

This will be yet another landmark year for the India. It will mark the centenary of greenhouse gas emissions from the coalfields of Jharia. Leave alone the several hundreds of crores of rupees of valuable coking coal that has gone up in smoke, the Jharia Coalfields continue to remain an environmental hazard with neither Coal India or Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) officials coming to a decision on how to control these fires despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement earlier in 2015 of a rapid solution to the problem.Jayanta Gupta | TNN | February 10, 2016, 17:39 IST

Kolkata: This will be yet another landmark year for the India. It will mark the centenary of greenhouse gas emissions from the coalfields of Jharia. Leave alone the several hundreds of crores of rupees of valuable coking coal that has gone up in smoke, the Jharia Coalfields continue to remain an environmental hazard with neither Coal India or Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) officials coming to a decision on how to control these fires despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement earlier in 2015 of a rapid solution to the problem. At stake are the health and lives of the thousands who live in the area and the extremely important railway link between Adra and Gomoh that passes over the underground fires.

According to BCCL, mining in the Jharia Coalfield (JCF) started in 1894 and the first fire was reported in 1916 at Bhowrah Colliery. The state-owned organization blames haphazard mining and lack of safety concerns to the spread of the fire to a large area. It needs to be mentioned here that JCF is the only source of prime coking coal in the country. After nationalization of coal mines in 1972-73, investigations carried out revealed 70 fires covering an area of 17.32 square km of BCCL. Subsequently, seven more fires were identified, taking the total number to 77.

"Between 1976 and 1988, several (22) fire projects were undertaken that resulted in extinguishing of 10 fires and controlling others. A World Bank-aided project was also undertaken later to study the fires and several crores were spent by the Government of India towards schemes to douse the flames and save valuable resources as well as protect the surface from subsidence and emission of hazardous gases. Finally, in 2008, work on a master plan started to deal with 67 fires under 45 projects, rehabilitation and resettlement from 595 endangered sites and diversion of railway tracks and roads," a senior BCCL official said.

It was recognized by BCCL that some of the fires not only cause severe environmental threat through emission of steam, smoke and noxious gases but also pose a serious health hazard to inhabitants.

"They bring forth irreplaceable damage to land and scarce water resources. And above all, it endangers suface structures and human lives with potentiality to cause disaster. The existing fire scenario in Jharia Coalfield continue to be alarming and there is urgent need to address the problem in right perspective," was admitted by BCCL in 2014, when it invited Expressions of Interest from companies across the world.

Only two companies participated in the process. One of them was from India and the other from Germany. On April 24, 2015, a meeting of the technical committee of BCCL was held in Dhanbad, Jharkhand. The participating companies were asked to clarify queries and give presentations regarding their experience and expertise in the presence of 39 experts from BCCL. The only participant was the company from Germany that has been quenching coal mine fires since 1880.

"We have quenched coalmine fires in Germany and also in China. In India, we have tracked fires in the Nimcha and Samdih mines of West Bengal under Eastern Coalfields Ltd (ECL). With our expertise, these fires were extinguished. During the presentation, we made it clear that resources can be mined progressively even as the fires are extinguished. No relocation of the population will be required either. Our company would only be providing the technical support. All other work would be carried out by Indians. It has been over nine months now but we have received no communication from BCCL. Finally, we wrote to the Prime Minister and were directed by his office to take the matter up with the coal ministry. On communicating with the coal ministry, we were asked to get in touch with Coal India Ltd and BCCL. This makes no sense. They were the ones who have remained silent after the 2014 meeting. We are running around in circles here. Now we are hearing convulated statements that there is no technology in the world to deal with such fires. This is incorrect. The truth is that there seems to be a lack of will in tackling the fires, We could have been told earlier and would not have wasted our efforts here" said a member of the DMT Group of Germany that had participated in the EoI.